The present invention relates generally to personal care products, and more specifically to illuminated implements for use by a caregiver when providing personal care to its charge.
Personal care products and tools have evolved and been developed for attending to personal hygiene of a human body. The evolution and development of these products and tools has largely been to enhance products for use by an individual in performance of their own personal care. When only a single person is involved, and that person controls the timing, urgency, and manner of performance of the product or tool, different parameters of the product or tool are optimized, created, emphasized and/or implemented.
However, when providing personal care for another person, particularly to a very young child or senior adult, the caregiver does not always control the timing, urgency, and manner of performance. Specifically, the caregiver may desire to provide various personal care procedures at times or locations that are not otherwise optimal. One common environmental factor that may not be able to be optimized in such situations is a level of ambient light in the vicinity of the procedure.
Besides these concerns, when providing personal care for another person, particularly to a very young child or senior adult, many caregivers prefer to enhance the level of care provided, including greater attention to safety procedures and use of safer tools. This is true even in situations where the caregiver may control some of the timing, urgency, and manner of performance, such as to increase a general level of ambient light. For this example, the caregiver may desire to precisely increase a level of illumination for use of personal care tool when a very young child or senior adult is involved.
Beyond these concerns, factors for acceptability and adoption of personal care procedures include ease of use, convenience, efficiency, and effectiveness. Portable illumination components (e.g., flashlights) have existed separate and distinct from tools so conventional systems either require coordination of the light source and a tool, or various forms of integration have been developed to mate a light to a tool. Some of the integration are simple physical connections that keep the tool and the light source together while others actually try to achieve a more synergistic combination. Maintaining ease of use, convenience, efficiency, and effectiveness becomes more challenging as multiple diverse functions are merged together. In the example of personal care applied to a young child or senior adult, enabling single-handed use and operation while providing the multiple diverse functions becomes increasingly difficult yet even more challenging. A caregiver often must use one hand for the tool and the other to interact with the young child or senior adult.
It should not be missed that improvements to procedures and tools that aid a care giver when attending to young children and senior adults may in many cases also assist in self-administration and self-care. Thus, it is a consideration that improvements to procedures and tools for administration to others not degrade or adversely affect self-administration.
One consequence of these factors is that some personal care products and tools are sometimes equipped with lights. Such conventional personal care products and tools have ON-OFF switches to control the light source independent from operation. The light for these devices is thus not always active and useful when the user operates the device. In some cases, operation of the device is delayed or interrupted while the light is manually illuminated. In other cases, the light is left on beyond the time of use because the switch was not manually returned to the off position, decreasing the longtime usefulness of the product or tool. Caregivers would prefer to have a product or tool that does not delay or interrupt their use, and one that does not have a premature end to its anticipated usefulness.
Today's consumer is inundated with offers to sell many different products and services, some of which may actually be of interest to the potential consumer. In some instances, interactive packaging (also sometimes referred to as “Try Me” packaging) may enhance an appeal of a product. For such products, it is advantageous to provide appropriate “Try Me” packaging. However, the state of the art does not permit a priori knowledge as to which products would be benefited from being packaged in an interactive format. Developing a superior product does not always equate with increased sales, at least until the market knows and understands the new product. There are many consumer products that incorporate microprocessors and microcontrollers that may include “Try Me” routines or programs that effectively address some of the concerns of “Try Me” packaging. However, for articles of manufacture that do not include electronic controllers, designing a product and its packaging to implement “Try Me” retailing is more challenging. Some conventional products have developed use of momentary switches or special multi-function switches so that a “continuous on” mode of the switch may be disabled by the packaging while providing access to an “On while pressed” mode of the switch.
What is needed are personal care products, tools, and procedures that address and overcome the deficiencies of the current products and tools; specifically what is needed are products, tools, and procedures for simply and efficiently increasing a level of illumination at the operational point of personal care products, tools, and procedures. Additionally, designing such products, tools, and procedures so that they include features or functions that may be emphasized in suitable interactive packaging is also beneficial.